The men claiming to be Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, suspected of the attack on double agent Sergei Skripal in the southern United Kingdom city of Salisbury, denied any wrongdoing at their television debuton RT on Thursday.

Skripal - a former GRU colonel who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service - and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench in the English city of Salisbury in March.

"We believe it is utterly inadmissible to draw parallels between the authorities of Russia and the incident in Salisbury", he said adding that "accusing Russia of lies after an interview with two Russian nationals is absurd as well since they are ordinary citizens and have nothing to do with the government".

"They had stayed less than hour in Salisbury, they said, because of bad weather", reports The Moscow Times.

"Today - just as we have seen throughout - they have responded with obfuscation and lies".

John Glen, the Parliament member for Salisbury, offered a wry comment about the pair's visit to his town, tweeting: "Delighted to see that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were able to see the world-class attractions that Salisbury has to offer". Boshirov explained that the sights in the town include "the famous Salisbury Cathedral", which he said is "famous for its 123 meter spire". They also said that their visit, at the time of the attack, was "an incredible, fatal coincidence". "What is our fault?" One of the bystanders later died from the Soviet-era nerve agent after she discovered it in a park disguised in a perfume bottle.

Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said bids to link the Russian state to what happened in Salisbury were "unacceptable", but when asked if he believed the men's account, Mr Peskov retorted that his opinion made no difference.

RT ran part of the interview on Thursday morning, in which Petrov said: "We are those shown to you in the (CCTV) pictures".

The New York Times reported Thursday that Russian intelligence agencies have in recent years identified and located multiple Russians who were CIA informants and now live in the us under a secret agency program.

The Moscow-based editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan, said that the two men had contacted her by phone and she spent an evening with them before the clips of the interview were aired on Thursday.

Scotland Yard published a number of photos of the two men, who, according to investigators, had been travelling around the country with Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. They said they were not, and actually work in the sports nutrition industry.

British police released CCTV footage and photographs showing the two men walking in Skripal's neighborhood on March 4, the day of the attack.

"We walked around and enjoyed this English Gothic architecture", he said.

"When your life is turned upside down in a moment?" "Sadly, it's what we've come to expect", Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said.

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